Writer Quotes

And though I might have learnt more wit and advanced my understanding by living in a Court, yet being dull, fearful and bashful, I neither heeded what was said or practised, but just what belonged to my loyal duty and my own honest reputation.

And not only my own brothers and sisters agreed so but my brothers and sisters in law; and their children, although but young, had the like agreeable natures and affectionate dispositions.

But if our sex would but well consider and rationally ponder, they will perceive and find that it is neither words nor place that can advance them, but worth and merit.

A rude nature is worse than a brute nature by so much more as man is better than a beast: and those that are of civil natures and genteel dispositions are as much nearer to celestial creatures as those that are rude and cruel are to devils.

A man of knowledge chooses a path with a heart and follows it and then he looks and rejoices and laughs and then he sees and knows.

We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.

We have to balance the lineality of the known universe with the nonlineality of the unknown universe.

To compare Tensegrity with yoga or t'ai chi is not possible. It has a different origin and a different purpose. The origin is shamanic, the purpose is shamanic.

The things shamans deal with are extremely practical. They break down parameters of normal historical reality. Magical passes are just one aspect of that.

Leave Jesus on the cross. He's very happy there!

The only thing that is real is the being in you that is going to die.

A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting.

All paths are the same, leading nowhere. Therefore, pick a path with heart!

Look at every path closely and deliberately, then ask ourselves this crucial question: Does this path have a heart? If it does, then the path is good. If it doesn't, it is of no use.

To achieve the mood of a warrior is not a simple matter. It is a revolution. To regard the lion and the water rats and our fellow men as equals is a magnificent act of a warrior's spirit. It takes power to do that.

The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.

I alone, as the sharer of their way of life, presented a replica of childhood.

I became the unnatural son of a few score of beaten men.

I do believe very much in movie as a one-man-show. I think that where I've watched movie go wrong, it's usually because the dread committee has been interfering with it.

I am still making order out of chaos by reinvention.

Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes.

For better or worse, I've been involved in the description of political conflict.

Fools, most linguists. Damn all to say in one language, so they learn another and say damn all in that.

Every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic.

During the Cold War, we lived in coded times when it wasn't easy and there were shades of grey and ambiguity.

Completing a book, it's a little like having a baby.

By the age of 9 or 10, I knew that I had to cut my own cloth and make my own way.

But there is a big difference in working for the West and working for a totalitarian state.

But I think the real tension lies in the relationship between what you might call the pursuer and his quarry, whether it's the writer or the spy.

Americans believe that if you know something, you should do something about it.